“It’s very difficult for me to dislike an artist. No matter what he’s creating, the fact that he’s experiencing the joy of creation makes me feel like we’re in a brotherhood of some kind… we’re in it together.”—Chick Corea

“Listening is the key to everything good in music.”—Pat Metheny

“Clouds float in the same pattern only once.”—Wayne Shorter

“I merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues.”—Duke Ellington

“It’s taken me all my life to learn what not to play.”—Dizzy Gillespie

“Originality’s the thing. You can have tone and technique and a lot of other things but without originality you ain’t really nowhere. Gotta be original.”—Lester Young

“I’m trying to play the truth of what I am. The reason why it’s difficult is because I’m changing all the time.”—Charles Mingus

“Jazz is the type of music that can absorb so many things and still be jazz.”—Sonny Rollins

“Jazz has the power to make men forget their differences and come together… Jazz is the personification of transforming overwhelmingly negative circumstances into freedom, friendship, hope, and dignity.”—Quincy Jones

Miles Davis

“Nothing is out of the question for me. I’m always thinking about creating. My future starts when I wake up in the morning and see the light…Then I’m grateful.”—Miles Davis

“One thing I like about jazz, kid, is that I don’t know what’s going to happen next. Do you?”—Bix Beiderbecke